The Qing regime is determined to protect itself not only from internal rebellion but also from foreign invasion.

After China Proper had been subdued, the Manchus had conquered Outer Mongolia (now the Mongolian People's Republic) in the late seventeenth century.

In the eighteenth century, they gain control of Central Asia as far as the Pamir Mountains and establish a protectorate over the area commonly known in the West as Tibet, but which the Chinese call Xizang.

The Qing thus become the first dynasty to eliminate successfully all danger to China Proper from across its land borders.

Under Manchu rule the empire grows to include a larger area than before or since; Taiwan, the last outpost of anti-Manchu resistance, is also incorporated into China for the first time.

In addition, Qing emperors receive tribute from the various border states.

The chief threat to China's integrity does not come overland, as it has so often in the past, but by sea, reaching the southern coastal area first.

Western traders, missionaries, and soldiers of fortune had begun to arrive in large numbers even before the Qing, in the sixteenth century.

The empire's inability to evaluate correctly the nature of the new challenge or to respond flexibly to it will result in the demise of the Qing and the collapse of the entire millennia-old framework of dynastic rule.

Ming Dynasty loyalists under the leadership of Zheng Chenggong (also known as Koxinga), had battled the Manchus for two decades.

The Zheng family having now surrendered, the Qing Dynasty has annexed Taiwan, ruling it as a prefecture.

The Qing government orders coastal regions to be repopulated, and to encourage settlers, gives a financial incentive to each settling family.

The Qing authorities seek to limit immigration to Taiwan, however, and bar families from traveling here to ensure the immigrants will return to their families and ancestral graves.

Illegal immigration will continue, but many of the men, having few prospects in war-weary Fujian, will marry locals, resulting in the idiom "mainland grandfather no mainland grandmother".

The Qing attempt to protect aboriginal land claims but also seek to tax the aborigines.

So as not to engage with the non-taxpaying highland aborigines and incite rebellion, the government bars Chinese and tax-paying aborigines from entering the wilderness that covers most of the island.

To discourage illegal land reclamation, the Qing government constructs a border along the western plain, built using pits and mounds of earth, called "earth cows".

Immigration controls will not be relaxed until the 1760s.

East Asia (1828–1971 CE)

Empires Unraveled, Revolutions Forged, and Economic Miracles Begun

Geography & Environmental Context

East Asia encompasses the great continental and insular arc from the Tibetan Plateau to the Pacific—two subregions held constant in this framework:

• Upper East Asia: Mongolia and western China (Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, and adjoining uplands).

• Lower East Asia: eastern and southern China, Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the Ryukyu and Izu island chains.

The region spans deserts, plateaus, and alpine basins in the interior to humid river plains and monsoon coasts in the east. Its great rivers—the Yellow, Yangtze, and Pearl—linked agricultural cores to seaports that became gateways of both commerce and foreign control.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

Monsoon cycles continued to shape harvests. The 19th century saw floods, droughts, and famine in China (notably the North China Famine, 1876–79). Deforestation and siltation worsened flood damage in the Yellow River basin. The 20th century brought dam projects, terracing, and reforestation but also wartime devastation and later industrial pollution. Typhoons and earthquakes periodically struck Japan, Taiwan, and coastal China.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Rural continuity: Rice, wheat, and millet remained staples; peasants formed the majority until mid-century land reforms.

• Urban growth: Treaty ports (Shanghai, Tianjin, Yokohama, Nagasaki) became colonial enclaves; later, modern metropolises—Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing—drove industrialization.

• Migration: Millions moved within and beyond China as laborers and merchants; Mongolian and Tibetan pastoralists faced sedentarization under imperial and later socialist regimes.

Technology & Material Culture

Western industrial technology entered through ports and reforms. Railways, telegraphs, and steam navigation spread from the 1870s. After 1945, mechanization, electrification, and mass production reshaped daily life. Traditional crafts—porcelain, silk, lacquer, calligraphy—remained cultural touchstones even amid industrial growth. In the interior, Buddhist monasteries and nomadic tents coexisted with new socialist collectives and mines.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Continental routes: Trans-Siberian and Chinese trunk railways integrated the interior.

• Maritime networks: The Pacific and South China Sea tied treaty ports to global trade.

• Diasporas: Chinese merchants, Korean and Japanese migrants, and Tibetan traders extended East Asian networks across Asia and beyond.

• Military corridors: Repeated wars—the Opium Wars, Sino-Japanese conflicts, Pacific War, and Korean War—turned transport arteries into front lines.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Confucian and Buddhist traditions persisted but were challenged by Christianity, socialism, and nationalism. The Meiji Restoration (1868) in Japan redefined tradition as modernization; Chinese reformers sought to “self-strengthen” through Western science; Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhism adapted to socialist oversight. Literature and art blended realism and modernism: Lu Xun in China, Tanizaki and Kawabata in Japan, Kim Sowol in Korea. Folk and classical forms—from Chinese opera to Japanese kabuki—remained central to identity.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Irrigation and terracing stabilized yields; community granaries and kinship networks mitigated famine. After mid-century, land reform and collectivization in China, North Korea, and Mongolia transformed agrarian systems. Japan’s and South Korea’s reforestation and flood-control programs paralleled rapid industrial pollution control efforts by the late 1960s.

Political & Military Shocks

• China: Opium Wars (1839–60) opened treaty ports; the Taiping (1850–64) and Boxer (1899–1901) uprisings shattered Qing control. The 1911 Revolution ended dynastic rule; the People’s Republic (1949) followed decades of warlordism, invasion, and civil war.

• Japan: The Meiji state (1868) industrialized, defeated China (1894–95) and Russia (1904–05), built an empire, and after WWII reconstruction became an economic power.

• Korea: From late-19th-century reforms through Japanese annexation (1910–45) to division after liberation and the Korean War (1950–53).

• Mongolia: Gained independence from Qing (1911), became a Soviet-aligned republic (1924).

• Tibet & Xinjiang: Integrated into the PRC (1950s) through force and reform; revolts in Tibet (1959) and Xinjiang repression marked ongoing contestation.

• Cold War: East Asia was divided—communist mainland versus capitalist maritime rim—anchoring the global bipolar order.

Transition

Between 1828 and 1971, East Asia was remade through revolution, industrialization, and ideological division. Dynastic empires gave way to republics, colonies to nation-states. Japan and the “Little Tigers” entered early economic miracles; China and its interior pursued socialist transformation; Korea remained split; Mongolia and Tibet navigated life within Soviet and Chinese spheres. Across the region, modernization carried the weight of memory—Confucian ethics, Buddhist cosmology, and ancestral landscapes enduring beneath steel, slogans, and neon.

Maritime East Asia (1828–1971 CE): Dynastic Collapse, Imperial Encounters, and Industrial Revolutions

Geography & Environmental Context

Maritime East Asia encompasses southern and eastern China (Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan Basin, Chongqing, Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin, southern Heilongjiang), Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, southern Primorsky Krai, and the Japanese islands of Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, and southwestern Hokkaidō, plus the Ryukyu and Izu island chains. Anchors include the Yangtze and Yellow River basins, the Sichuan Basin, the Pearl River Delta, the Korean mountains and Han River valley, and the Japanese archipelago stretching into the Pacific.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The subregion’s monsoonal regime brought alternating floods and droughts. China’s Yellow River repeatedly shifted course (notably floods of 1855, 1931), devastating farmlands. Famines struck northern China and Korea in the 19th century; deforestation in uplands worsened soil erosion. Typhoons regularly battered Taiwan, Fujian, and the Ryukyu chain. Industrial urbanization in Japan, Korea, and later coastal China introduced pollution and new ecological strains by the mid-20th century.

Subsistence & Settlement

• China: Rice dominated the south (Yangtze, Pearl deltas); wheat, millet, and sorghum fed the north. Tea, silk, and cotton underpinned commerce. Urban hubs like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Chongqing grew rapidly.

• Korea: Rice paddies in the south, millet and barley in the north; fishing villages dotted the coasts. Seoul (Hanyang) expanded modestly until the late 19th century, then became a colonial capital under Japan.

• Japan: Rice agriculture was the base, but from the Meiji era (1868), industrialization transformed Osaka, Tokyo, and Yokohama into manufacturing and commercial centers.

• Taiwan: Rice and sugar cultivation thrived; under Japanese colonial rule (1895–1945), plantations and infrastructure expanded.

• Primorsky Krai: Fishing, forestry, and Russian settler agriculture integrated this fringe into both East Asian and Siberian networks.

Technology & Material Culture

• 19th century China: Weaving, porcelain, and handicrafts persisted; steamships, telegraphs, and railways entered through treaty ports.

• Japan: The Meiji era imported Western technology; shipyards, railways, and modern factories reshaped cities. Postwar, Japan pioneered electronics and automobiles.

• Korea: Under Japanese rule (1910–1945), railways, mines, and ports were developed; after 1945, the peninsula divided—North Korea industrialized under Soviet aid; South Korea struggled with war but began post-1960s export-driven growth.

• Taiwan: Railways, irrigation, and port works under Japan; post-1949 Nationalist rule built industry with American support.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Maritime hubs: Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nagasaki, and Busan tied the region into global shipping.

• Railroads: Transcontinental Russian lines reached Primorsky; Japan built dense domestic networks; China’s first railways (1870s onward) expanded in treaty-port regions.

• Migration: Millions of Chinese emigrated to Southeast Asia and the Americas; Japanese settlers moved into Korea and Taiwan under empire.

• War corridors: From the Opium Wars (1839–42) to the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), Pacific War (1941–45), and the Korean War (1950–53), armies moved repeatedly across the subregion.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• China: The late Qing saw the Taiping and Boxer upheavals; Confucian traditions contended with Christian missions and modern reform. Republican-era intellectuals (May Fourth Movement, 1919) fostered new literature and nationalism.

• Japan: The Meiji Restoration cultivated Shinto nationalism and Western-style arts; post-1945, pacifist democracy blended tradition with global modernism.

• Korea: Confucian yangban culture dominated until colonization; Korean nationalism and literature grew under Japanese censorship; division after 1945 entrenched contrasting socialist and capitalist cultures.

• Taiwan: Indigenous Austronesian traditions persisted alongside Chinese settler practices; Japanese colonial architecture and education left a lasting imprint.

• Pan-Asian encounters: Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, Christianity, and modern ideologies all competed for influence.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Flood control: Dikes and canals in China remained vital; 20th-century hydropower projects (Three Gorges precursors, 1950s–60s) began reshaping rivers.

• Agrarian diversification: Potatoes, maize, and sweet potatoes spread, buffering famine in parts of China and Korea.

• Urban resilience: Post-1945 reconstruction rebuilt Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai after wartime devastation.

• Industrial adaptation: Japan rebuilt rapidly after 1945 into an export powerhouse, while China’s collectivization and Great Leap Forward (1958–62) caused famine but later stabilized under gradual reforms.

Political & Military Shocks

• China:

  • Opium Wars (1839–42, 1856–60) opened treaty ports.

  • Taiping (1850–64) and Boxer (1899–1901) Rebellions shook Qing rule.

  • Fall of Qing (1911), Republic of China, and civil war (1920s–1949).

  • PRC founded 1949; Great Leap Forward (1958–62) and Cultural Revolution (1966–76) disrupted society.

• Japan:

  • Meiji Restoration (1868); rapid modernization and empire-building.

  • Wars with China (1894–95), Russia (1904–05), and WWII (1941–45).

  • Defeat in 1945; U.S. occupation (1945–52) imposed democratic reforms.

• Korea:

  • Annexed by Japan (1910–45); liberation after WWII.

  • Division (1945) and Korean War (1950–53) entrenched North/South split.

• Taiwan:

  • Japanese colony (1895–1945).

  • Became base of Republic of China (Kuomintang) after 1949.

• Primorsky Krai: Incorporated into Russian Empire (mid-19th c.); fortified as Soviet Far Eastern frontier in the Cold War.

Transition

Between 1828 and 1971, Maritime East Asia moved from dynastic decline and semi-colonial pressures to industrial revolutions, world wars, and ideological division. Qing China collapsed into republican and then communist rule; Japan transformed into both an empire and then a postwar economic powerhouse; Korea endured colonization, liberation, and Cold War partition; Taiwan became the stronghold of the Kuomintang. By 1971, the subregion was a Cold War flashpoint—with China’s UN seat transferring to the PRC, Japan rising as a global economic power, and the Korean peninsula divided—yet also a region of cultural dynamism and resilience rooted in centuries-old agrarian and urban traditions.

Commodore Matthew C. Perry embarks from Norfolk, Virginia for Japan, in command of the East India Squadron in pursuit of a Japanese trade treaty, on November 24, 1852.

Perry has been assigned a mission by American President Millard Fillmore to force the opening of Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary.

The growing commerce between the United States and China, the presence of American whalers in waters offshore Japan, and the increasing monopolization of potential coaling stations by the British and French in Asia are all contributing factors.

The Americans were also driven by concepts of manifest destiny and the desire to expand western civilization to what they perceive as more backward Asian nations.

Commodore Perry, on his way back from Japan, anchors off of Keelung in Formosa, known today as Taiwan, for ten days.

Perry and crew members land on Formosa and investigate the potential of mining the coal deposits in this area.

He will emphasize in his reports that Formosa provides a convenient mid-way trade location.

Formosa is also very defensible.

It could serve as a base for exploration as Cuba had done for the Spanish in the Americas.

Occupying Formosa could help the United States to counter European monopolization of the major trade routes.

The United States government will not respond to Perry's proposal to claim sovereignty over Formosa.

When Commodore Perry returns to the United States in 1855, Congress votes to grant him a reward of twenty thousand dollars (five hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars in 2019) in appreciation of his work in Japan.

He uses part of this money to prepare and publish a report on the expedition in three volumes, titled Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan.

He is also promoted to the grade of rear-admiral on the retired list (when his health begins to fail) as a reward for his service in the Far East.

A Ryukyuan vessel had been shipwrecked near the southern tip of Taiwan in December 1871, and fifty-four members of its crew of sixty-six had been beheaded by the Paiwan aborigines.

The remaining twelve crewmen had been rescued by Han Chinese and had been transferred to Tainan in southern Taiwan.

The local Chinese government officials had transferred them to Fujian province in mainland China, whence the Qing government had arranged to send them back home.

The Meiji government of Japan demands that the Chinese government punish leaders of the Taiwanese aborigines responsible for the murders of the Ryukyuan crew.

The Japanese foreign minister Soejima Taneomi had gone to Beijing, and had been received in an audience by the Qing Emperor Tongzhi (in itself a diplomatic triumph); however, his request for compensation had first been rejected because China considers it an internal affair, since Taiwan is part of Fujian Province of China and the Ryūkyū Kingdom has a tributary relationship with China.

When Soejima Taneomi had claimed that four of the victims murdered were from Oda Prefecture, present-day Okayama Prefecture, Japan and asked for compensation again, Chinese officials had refused him on the grounds that most of the Taiwanese aborigines were outside effective Chinese control, and were thus sometimes exempt from judicial action.

Charles Le Gendre, the French-born American military advisor to the Japanese government, as well as Gustave Emile Boissonade, legal advisor, has urged that Japan take the matter into its own hands.

The Japanese government agrees, and sends an expedition of thirty-six hundred soldiers led by Saigō Tsugumichi in May 1874.

The Japanese win a decisive victory at the Battle of Stone Gate on May 22.

Thirty Paiwan tribesmen are either killed or mortally wounded in the battle, and a considerably greater number wounded.

Japanese casualties are six killed and thirty wounded.